ITEM DEVELOPMENT AND PILOT TESTING OF THE MINI-MAP

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Developmental Technologies proposes to develop the Mini-MAP, a short screening test to determine which preschool aged children are at risk for learning disabilities. The Mini-MAP will be developed from the research of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP), a more comprehensive, predictive instrument and serve as a companion product to the MAP. The Mini-MAP is being proposed in direct response to requests from publishers and consumers to develop a version of the MAP that would be as reliable but shorter in length and less expensive. Comprehensive item selection will occur to meet recognized psychometric standards for test development and practical considerations. Item selection will be based on: extensive, previous item research and predictive validity, test retest, and reliability coefficients for each item; cost; administration time; and marketing considerations. The resulting pool of items will be pilot tested on 160 Colorado children (N=120 normal, N=40 at risk) and data will be analyzed (estimates of item difficulty and discrimination). In Phase II, the Mini-MAP will be nationally standardized on a sample of 3200 children stratified by age (2 to 6 years), race, sex, and socio-economic status according to U. S. Census statistics. Manufacturing and marketing will be undertaken by a major publishing firm. The prevalence of handicapping conditions combined with existing educational and medical efforts to identify children as young as possible creates a large market for the proposed preschool screening instrument.